A smart, mature Australian

Not a phrase one hears that often (!) but last night I encountered one in the guise of a 1966 Penfolds St Henri ‘Claret’

I bought a pair of these many years ago from the wine shop on Circular Quay in Sydney (along with a long since imbibed Bin 60a).

An Australian friend in KL for a few days was a good excuse to open one. A good fill, and an excellent cork that came out in one piece. I was surprised at the density of the colour - deep red/ tawny, almost mahogany, with a ‘sunset’ orange rim.

The nose, straight out of the blocks, was very rich and sweet, akin to a Christmas cake or an old antique desk. While nowadays St Henri is mostly Shiraz, we speculated that this contained a high proportion of Cabernet and maybe even Grenache given the very perfumed nose.

The palate was perfectly resolved. Sweet fruit, a hint of acidity and a long finish. There were none of the usual pepper or meat traits that I would have expected with a Shiraz, instead we were treated to chocolate and cinnamon. After about an hour the palate became a bit more figgy and less appealing.

Overall a beautiful bottle of grog
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I was thinking more along the lines of:

Or maybe…
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If your description is smart and mature it must of been a Kiwi

Hi Stephen
Halliday’s classic wines of Aus seems confident it was/is almost entirely Shiraz (originally the Auldana vineyard). Matured in 2000L casks and hogsheads for 18 months prior to bottling, always being aimed at being more traditional / restrained than Grange.

Rather amusingly Halliday (back in 2002) reckoned everything prior to 1986 had become austere and astringent, but he thought the wine massively improved in more recent vintages. I think I’d rather have the older wines than my 2004s!

I’m guessing a birth-year wine? If so a fine choice.